I just wanted to send my congratulations for the wonderful 4th of July Fireworks display. It was fantastic, awesome, beautiful, heart pounding, and mesmerizing! I had attended your display several years ago and was truly amazed then, but last night's was over the top. I have attended displays at Lake Perry and in Topeka and I was very happy with their displays. But yours will bring me back next year and I will be bringing as much of my family as I can get there.

I served as president of the Wamego Community Foundation from 1998, when it was founded, through 2003 and have remained on the WCF board as a community advisor ever since. Over the years I have seen the Foundation grow from one small charitable fund to nearly 40 funds that provide scholarships to area students, grants for community projects, and contributions to many other worthwhile charitable causes.

The WCF has provided a way for us to do many wonderful things in and for Wamego and surrounding communities, and I wanted to be able to provide some of those same opportunities and services to other rural communities in Kansas who didn’t have the tools or resources needed to establish their own community foundation.

I helped establish the Kansas Rural Communities Foundation in 2006 and am currently serving as president. However, and more importantly, I believe in the adage that a board member should be willing to give their time, talents, and treasures to the foundation. As such, my wife, Deb, and I have pledged to support the Community Foundation by contributing $2,500 a year for the next six years.

We believe in giving back to our community and the state we call home, and we want to help ensure the Community Foundation will continue providing services to all Kansans … now and forever.

My husband, Doug, and I had often talked about estate planning, but we never seemed to find the time and kept putting it off. Like most people, we were busy. We were running two companies — R. Tech Tool & Machine Inc. in Wamego and Paxico Antiques in Paxico—raising five kids and going to all their school activities, attending church, volunteering for various civic organizations, and everything else that keep all of us so busy.

When we decided travel to Japan on vacation in 2008, we knew we couldn’t put it off any longer. Our entire family was getting on an airplane and traveling halfway around the world; it was time to make provisions in the event something happened to us.

We met with our accountant and tax attorney and established a Trust that names our families, two of our favorite charitable organizations, and the Wamego Community Foundation as beneficiaries. Upon our death, the Doug and Rachelle Routh Community Endowment Fund will be established at the Community Foundation. The WCF Board of Directors, as trustees, will determine the areas of the greatest need in and for the Wamego community and will make disbursements from the income of our Endowment Fund each year.

In December 2008, we also established two R. Tech Tool and Machine Scholarship Funds with the Foundation. Every year a student at Wabaunsee High School in Alma and a student at Wamego High School will receive a scholarship. We feel so good that we are able to help deserving students further their education in the field of metal fabrication.

We have been truly blessed in so many ways, and we wanted to give something back to the communities where we live and work.

Sincerely,

Rachelle RouthRural Alma

P.S. I also joined the board of the Wamego Community Foundation in January 2009 as a community advisor because I see the great things they are doing for the community, and I wanted to be a part of it!